Visit to Hilltop Road plant

[Brian Wood]

Hi Gang,

On my recent road trip from Colorado to Michigan, I stopped at the old
Heathkit factory in St. Joseph. It was open, so I just walked in and started
looking around and taking pictures. Eventually, the plant mgr, Gary Hall,
stopped by and asked me what I was doing. I told him of my (and our) love
for the Heath saga, and we had a great chat. He's been there since 1971, so
he saw the glory days. Also ran into Wayne Sherrier (sp?) who has been there
since about 1981.

The plant currently has 18 tenants, and the entire northern half of the bldg
is occupied by an auto parts company. Gary said they recently got $800K for
renovation and are going to start redoing the outside as well as the inside.
So it won't look like "our" Heathkit plant much longer.

I must confess to feeling a sense of both awe and sadness as I walked
around. There were lots of ghosts still haunting the halls. I could picture
it teeming with activity as the latest SB series was designed, tested and
shipped. All of the kits I had built over the years were made here. I could
feel the sense of helplessness, as Zenith and other market forces reduced
the once mighty company to 30 employees working in the back of an old K-Mart
(no offense to those of you who are left).

I'll post some of the pictures, after I convert them from 700K to about 20K
for bandwidth.

Brian Wood, W0DZ

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